Erin Brockovich (2000) - Roberts, Soderbergh and Grant's triumphant biopic

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Julia Roberts radiates maternal power and beauty on the poster for Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich

Erin is an uneducated, divorced mother of three, who is in debt, when she finally lands an office job that she looses again, because she engages herself in a water pollution scandal, which gets far-reaching consequences.

Oscar-winning Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman (1990)) returns with a powerhouse performance in a the dramatic title part as devil-may-care, straight-talking Brockovich; a woman with her heart in the right place and a great head on her shoulders. Roberts receives fine support from Oscar-nominated Albert Finney (Simpatico (1999)) and Aaron Eckhart (I, Frankenstein (2014)), who is charming as her biker boyfriend.
Brockovich is like an inverted Jordan Belfort, the titular fraudster of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); she is a strong woman in a strong film that incenses us about water contamination. Erin Brockovich, written by Oscar-nominated Susannah Grant (In Her Shoes (2005)) and directed by Oscar-nominated Georgian master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)), is an outstanding winner.

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Watch a clip from the movie here

Cost: 52 mil. $
Box office: 256.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Erin Brockovich premiered 14 March (USA) and runs 130 minutes. Shooting took place in California for 11 weeks from May - August 1999. The film opened #1 to a 28.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for two more weeks and was in the top 5 for a total of 5 weeks, grossing 125.5 mil. $ (49 % of the total gross). Real life Brockovich, who plays a waitress named Julia in the film in a short scene, has stated that the film is 98 % accurate, while others have doubted its authenticity. Roger Ebert gave it a harsh 2-star review. The film was nominated for 5 Oscars: Best Actress (Roberts, won), Best Director (Soderbergh lost to himself for Traffic), Best Picture (lost to Gladiator), Best Supporting Actor (Finney, lost to Benicio Del Toro for Traffic), Best Original Screenplay (Grant lost to Cameron Crowe for Almost Famous). It also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for another 3, 1 BAFTA and nominated for another 5, AFI's Movie of the Year award, a European Film Awards nomination, 2 National Board of Review Awards as well as many other nominations and wins. Erin Brockovich is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Erin Brockovich?

A Good Year (2006) - Ridley Scott likes Provence

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+ Worst Poster of the Year + Most Deserved Flop of the Year

Russell Crowe looking humored in a bright shirt in a sunny place is all that this poster for Ridley Scott's A Good Year features

A successful, London-based banker as unendurable as nails on a blackboard inherits a chateau in Provence, France. Over there, he meets a beautiful woman (Marion Cotillard (From the Land of the Moon/Mal de Pierres (2016))) and turns into a bon vivant within a week or so.

As is obvious from the above, the story is as sappily predictable as it is utterly ridiculous. Russell Crowe (War Machine (2017)) feels like a big lion squeezed into a ballerina's outfit in this hideous cliché picture, the only comedy attempted ever by English master filmmaker Ridley Scott (Hannibal (2001)), whose 16th feature it is. The story has come to be this film, because Scott owns a house in Provence and likes it there. - No kidding! It is written by Marc Klein (Serendipity (2001)), based on the same-titled 2004 novel by Peter Mayle (A Year in Provence (1989)), one of Scott's neighbors in the area.
We expect more than this from Scott, and rightly we should. He fares better in films with some darkness and conflict, (which is almost completely lacking in A Good Year), but he has stated in explanation: "I'm very attracted to comedy. At the end of the day, because you've been having a good old laugh, you go home laughing — as opposed to dealing with blood all day and you go home and want to cut your wrists." This is a troubling statement in light of his brother, also master filmmaker Tony Scott's tragic suicide in 2012 and also considering the string of usually bloody, dark films that Ridley Scott is engaged in either as director and/or as producer.
You will likely smile a few times while watching A Good Year, and probably enjoy the acting by young, cute Brit Freddie Highmore (Arthur and the Invisibles/Arthur et les Minimoys (2006)). But that will be about it. A Good Year is a trifle that is almost an insult; a film made for women's magazines, a filmmaker's lazy stroll in the yard - and little else.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 42 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.2 times its cost)
[A Good Year premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario, Canada) and runs 118 minutes. Shooting took place in 9 weeks in 2005 in London, England, and in France. The film opened #10 to a 3.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it only declined from there, grossing 7.4 mil. $ (17.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 7.2 mil. $ (17.1 %) and Spain with 4.2 mil. $ (10 %). It made in excess of 7 mil. $ on home video sales domestically, which would not change the film's 'big flop' status if figured into the equation. Scott returned with American Gangster (2007). Crowe returned in 3:10 to Yuma (2007). A Good Year is rotten at 25 % with a 4.79/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Good Year?